Latest News

BRYN WEESE, SUN MEDIA

Not only are the Blue Jays wearing their baby blues on Fridays, but the Rogers Centre also became Exhibition Stadium this weekend, if only for a few minutes.

To the delight of some fans, a brazen blond enjoyed some of Saturday's game against the Yankees in an outfield hotel suite wearing nothing but a thong and a smile.

Just before 4 p.m., in the seventh inning, Sun photographer Dave Abel caught pictures of the woman leaning up against the glass in a suite next to the Jumbotron.

"The Jumbotron videographer told me I might want to look at the suite to the left of the screen, so I looked up, and there she was," Abel said. "You don't see that every day at a Blue Jays game.

"And at Jays games, a lot of people bring binoculars, and some saw us looking over at the box and then looked up themselves," he added.

The Renaissance Hotel, which offers 70 rooms overlooking the field, for about $400 a night, said they dealt with the nudity as soon as they learned about it.

NOTHING RISQUE

"Our security and duty manager went up and dealt with the guests," said Dan Woodburn, Renaissance's director of operations. "When people check in, we have quite a procedure and they have to sign a waiver saying they won't throw anything or do anything (risque)."

The windows of the hotel rooms are all monitored by hotel staff during all events, even rock concerts, he said.

"If there's something bad happening, we can zero in on it and we respond pretty quickly to it," Woodburn said, but he wouldn't say how the semi-naked woman and her male companions -- who numbered at least seven -- were dealt with, whether they were asked to leave or simply told to put on their clothes.

A Toronto Police source confirmed they were not called in to assist with the incident.

But nudity -- and worse -- at the SkyDome and now the Rogers Centre is nothing new.

Since it opened in 1989, there have been at least three incidents at the hotel where couples were having sex in plain view of tens of thousands of fans, as well as one incident when a man was thrown out of the hotel for masturbating at the window, believing it was one-way glass.

"We have a unique product here. Obviously, in hotel rooms around the world, who knows what happens. But here, it's kind of like a fishbowl," Woodburn said.

For stats nuts, the Blue Jays are 2-3 when hotel guests are caught getting naked or getting it on.

They lost Saturday's game to the Yankees, but no one from the organization could be reached for comment yesterday as to whether the naked woman was a distraction for the Jays' batters, or encouragement for the Yankees.

TIMES HAVE CHANGED

John Nunziata is a former Liberal and Independent MP who once championed the cause of Toronto's "Keep Tops On," a group that was against allowing women to be topless in public.

He told the Sun yesterday he is older and perhaps a little wiser now.

"I'm getting on in years, and I say live and let live. God bless her," he said, noting that 1996 when he lobbied the government for cover-up legislation was a long time ago.

"The times, they are a changing and I'm not worked up about it."

---

PAST PECCADILLOS

Other incidents at the Rogers Centre, formerly SkyDome, and game results:

May 1990

During a Blue Jays game, hotel security and police throw out a man who was seen masturbating behind a hotel room window that overlooked the baseball diamond. Police said the man thought he was behind a one-way window.

May 1990

A couple has sex in one of the 70 hotel rooms overlooking a ball game attended by 55,000 fans. The couple -- who apparently weren't aware they could be seen with the lights off -- were "mortified." The incident received media attention around the world, including five minutes on The Arsenio Hall Show.

The Jays lost.

May 1990

The Renaissance Hotel at the then-SkyDome adopts a new policy, which makes patrons of the very public rooms sign a waiver agreeing they won't do anything rude in front of the windows. Reminders are also placed in the rooms overlooking the diamond.

May 1995

In front of 40,000 fans, a couple has sex in a chair right next to the window overlooking the field during the 7th inning of a Jays-Royals match. The couple were seen right above the then-Jumbotron (now the Rogers Centre videoboard).

The Jays lost.

May 1996

At a Jays-Red Sox game attended by 31,000 fans, a couple puts on what reporters dubbed a "20-minute sex show." Hotel staff consider making waivers more explicit, and even installing one-way glass in the diamond-side rooms.

The Jays won.

September 1997

Reporters and cameramen spot a couple, tucked high up in the cheap seats of the SkyDome, having sex.

The Jays won.

July 2008

After more than a decade where nudity and sex in the Renaissance hotel rooms at the Rogers Centre go unreported, an attractive blond woman -- surrounded by men -- was seen wearing nothing but a thong and a smile in one of the hotel's suites during a Jays-Yankees game.